relics of days past or, "you want my badge and gun?"

yesterday i pulled some stuff out of my storage bin destined for the recycling bin. one box was full of paperwork from the thesis films i edited in college, some random shot logs from when i script supervised for friends and the wrap paperwork from the one feature i've edited, "Down & Dirty." this is not a good movie, but it was a blast to work with Fred Williamson. i've got some fucking awesome stories of working with The Hammer. the binder of negative pull and cut lists i turned over to the negative cutter (negative? film negative? boy howdy, this was only nine years ago.) included this cover letter:



July 5, 2000

[Negative Cutter]
Mr. X and Mr. Y,

A few notes regarding the lists:

I was unable to generate cut lists with accurate keys for shots that occur within dissolves. We've annotated the lists with the keys from the telecine tapes. Also, I've drawn charts that resemble marked workprints for all the dissolves.

There are many small discrepancies in the cutlists. We've marked offages of more than one frame in the margin. There are a few that are off by 5 or 6 frames.

The black space at the head of Reel 01 will be occupied by either an animation or the Po' Boy logo, or still cards. The head credits and end crawl will be done at the lab. I will get you their name and number.

The beta tapes of the reels are provided for you to make 3/4" dubs "just the way you like." There is no reel window burn on them, so you can place it on your dubs. Please return these to Golden Lion Studios (phone number here) when you've made your dubs.

You can reach me at: defunct phone number. Page me or leave a brief voice mail.

We had particular difficulty with the EDL generator on this project. Although we went through each edit to check the accuracy of the numbers, the adjustments that the cutlist generator made continue to be a mystery. I am pleased to know that your family is looking after our negative.

Thank you in advance,

[Ms. Y.],
Editor, "Down & Dirty"

that trio of actors includes: Fred Willliamson, Gary Busey and David Carridine. yep.

knit 2, purl 2, cable 2 forward...

since no one in my family reads this i can safely post pix of the gloves that i knit them for xmas.
i used the cabled handwarmer pattern from julie at little knittery in los angeles. i knit a pair of these for myself a couple years ago and love them, so i wanted to share the love.

i knit 5 pairs of these: 2 for my nieces, 1 each for my brother and sister and 1 pair for my pal, eli.
here are a slew of pix: please pardon the "hand modeling" hilarity and lack of backdrop variety















fun facts: the white mug i am holding was a wrap gift i rec'd when i worked on the show, "Cane." they were gifts to the crew from jimmy smits.
the orange and yellow gloves were knit in brown sheep worsted weight yarn.



these variagated mitts were knit using Di.Vé autunno merino wool. ooooh, sooo soft and warm.
this pair was knit in cascade alpaca. again with the fantastic:
i also knit a pair in black for my brother, but forgot to take a pic before putting them in the mail.

in the midst of knitting all these gloves i lost one of my own. looks like it's time for a new pair for me. :)

continuing with the craft stuff:

i've been working on a couple 50's style shirt dresses. the first dress is in this great michael miller colorful fish fabric. (all that remains to be done on this one are putting in the button holes, buttons, and hemming. so close!) my plan for this dress pattern was to make a few of them using the MANY fabrics in my closet of which i have at least 4 yards of each... (that was a fucking awful sentence, but you get the idea.)

anywhoo. dress 1: fish fabric
dress 2: tractor fabric! i combined the tractors with some dark sage green that i bought at a yard sale some time ago. here are some "work in progress" shots of the fabric combo:
this is part of the skirt. it will be pleated at the waist. the green will end up being a 3" band around the bottom once the hem is finished.






here i've pinned the collar to the bodice. still need to baste it then attach the facing. this bit requires some concentration and focus, so the bodice has been sitting in this state for at least two weeks.
am hoping to log in some serious long days/nights sewing over the winter break. (note to self: no wine during the complex construction)


here are some pix of the fish dress. the details are really nice. i have since re-shaped the collar and it looks MUCH better. i'd pressed it too wide.

this pattern is one modified by Shaeri at Sew-LA. she usually teaches this dress as a 6 week class, but i could never commit to anything for 6 weeks in a row and i didn't need that much detailed instruction. she and i booked 3 private classes to cover fitting and pattern modification. the pleated skirt is her pattern. the way the last pleat lines up with the bottom bodice dart is a good example of her attention to detail.






ok. all this typing about sewing while i am sitting at my desk at work (when i could be heading home) is a bit thick. i'm gonna head home and do some pinning on the patchwork quilt i've got cooking. this quilt was meant to be a good "pick up for 15 min at a time while working a nutty schedule" project and it's turning out to be just the thing.

eventful: while i was typing up this entry i got a call from my pal eli, the recipient of the orange mitts. she called to tell me she loves them and has been wearing them all day! hooray!! one often wonders what becomes of the handmade items they give away. i think of all the much-love slippers, and un-worn hats my grandma crocheted for me when i was a kid.

still to come: the story of amelita! this is really good. perhaps i can cover it while OFF FOR THE HOLIDAYS!! HELL. YES.

**note: while i am typing this up the formatting looks COMPLETELY different. how is one to achieve a nice presentation when the formatting is unpredictable. how? i ask.

this piano filled with souls

today i've got a brain full of things. i will just say this: when you've got people close to you spending a considerable amount of time in and around hospitals, working on a television medical drama is a loaded enterprise.

i have the itunes shuffle hooked up to the mixing board in the edit bay. wilco's "when you wake up feeling old" just played. not to put too fine a point on it, but i do love this song. a dozen warm memories flitted thru my head while it was on. the last was this: last year at jeff tweedy's letters to santa show at hotel s&s it was the song i requested. jeff told a funny anecdote about how they were mixing the album they strode to get the bird sounds in key with the song.

summerteeth was released in 1998, but it feels like it's been a part of things for much longer than that.

big love to charlie, mike and roberta!

a big day for things

the thanksgiving holiday weekend meant lots of time off for me. i got in some quality slacking, sewing, knitting, socializing and napping. as i went into the long weekend i had some loose plans for tackling chores/tasks that have been nagging me: dusty window sills, over crowded storage closet, stuff to go to out-of-the-closet. i got a nice little chunk of this stuff done, but knew that the larger projects that i hadn't done while i had time, might languish until spring.

this morning, just as i was gathering my backpack and coffee mug to head out for work, i got a wild hair to address a long bothersome thing: the hamper full of pillows and blankets.
this hamper had a home in my bedroom behind a door, but i've moved some furniture around leaving the basket without a home for the last two months. it's been in the middle of the living room, crowding the route to the big red chair (drag). on the long weekend, i cleaned the living room floor, and so moved the basket to my room.

now, without going into even more dull detail, let's just say that the basket was in the middle of the floor. next to ANOTHER homeless basket of stuff. and the ironing board. three days of this was enough to compel me to act.
i went to the linen closet, pulled out a foam egg-shell pad that was meant to me used with the now-defunt air mattress, ear marked it for either a homeless person in the neighborhood or the bin, and moved the pillows and blankets into the vacant spot on the top shelf of the closet.
HOO-RAY.
the basket is stamped with a recycling stamp, so i didn't have the satisfaction of putting it in the bin this morning. i'm gonna make some strategic cuts in it tonight to flatten it, then put it in the blue bin.
this accomplished, i went out to the storage space and pulled out a big bag of binders.
i'd been keeping them, but figured if i haven't used them in 4 years, i would take them to the office where i use 2/month. i emptied the contents of two of them into the recycling bin: all the paperwork from the pilot for "the unit." one page dated 3.19.05. good-bye paperwork! (office binders in current use in bg of inset. love that colored paper tape :D )

alongside the binders i put a box of rubber stamps to be mailed to a friend, and a huge piece of tie-dyed looking polar fleece to either give to someone at work, or give to o-o-t-c. (the fleece was one of three pieces left over from making some blankets for my nieces 4 years ago. the two other pieces went to petra on saturday!)
when i took the bag of binders out of that closet i saw a huge plastic container at the back full of...my student films! holy toledo. if anyone is interested in some super-8 found footage, drop me a line. ;)

in summation: the chipping away continues!

i left for work this morning with a short list in my pocket: three things i was going to accomplish today:
1. boxes to mail
2. sweatshirt
3. radio cord & battery

i've got three bundles of stuff i've been wanting to post, but didn't have boxes, so that was on the list. as for the sweatshirt, i've been trying for years to replace this plain, grey, zip up hooded sweatshirt. i've had it for many many years. the cuffs are barely attached to the sleeves.
i don't wear it to work b/c as casual as i get, it's not really office attire. (keep in mind i wear shorts and tennis shoes to work about 65% of the time).
each time i've tried to replace it, i've been faced with fleece lining, embroidered logos, or fashion tailoring. too much stuff and too much cost.
the radio cord/battery are needed to breathe life into the 6+ years old tivoli PAL radio that i have (and love in a way that some cultures would find beautiful).

when i got to work this morning i set to task. did some online research re: replacement bits for the radio, placed a phone call. *check*

then looked at least 8 different websites searching for the Grey Hooded Sweatshirt. after much consternation, i thought about a hoodie that gets a lot of wear: my kxlu sweatshirt. made by americal apparel. a quick visit to their website and a call to confirm my findings. made a plan to stop at the los feliz a.p. to try on some hoodies.

boxes. the boxes/am. app. combo had me set my sights on a lunch time errand run back to my neighborhood. stopped for some fish tacos, zipped over to box bros, popped into mustard seed for an iced latte, and then over to a.p. to shop.

i am all aglow at adding to my wardrobe today this light grey hooded sweatshirt!
pix to come...just remembered i wanted to make some calls before 6pm. TCB!

note:
oddest itunes song shuffle pairing while writing this entry: saul williams "telegram" into decemberists "red right ankle."
suprise song: sinead o'connor: "mandinka"

setting things to rights

today is a big day.

without going into too sordid detail: the banks that hold my credit cards have seen fit to raise the APRs on them with no cause other than they've "revised their business model." two cards were from the same bank. APR: 27.24%

fuckers.

so. today was the day i got to pay one off completely and take the other one down to a very small amount. when i signed my name to the checks i wanted to write something pithy like, "get bent!" in the memo line, but i resisted.

i didn't expect it, but i felt such a huge relief as i walked away from the post office. felt that i'd regained control of something that had been beyond my control for so long. (i'm not one of those people who is constantly shuffling money around or switching credit cards. i just stick with what i've got. i'm just lazy that way. or was. :) )

i've been committed to paying cash for everything. the only time i use a credit card is for travel: plane tickets, hotel reservations, car rentals. anywhoo. this felt great.

after i'd signed the checks and before the post office i walked down to peet's coffee for a cup o' the great stuff (decaf sumatra). as i walked in i saw it on the shelf: the Nissan Thermos thermal coffee mug. this is the Red Rider b.b. gun of coffee mugs. i have owned 3 in my coffee drinking career. the first for 6 years. my last was nicked from the dish drainer while i was working on "The Cleaner." (i think it was someone in the U.S. of Tara production office, but i can't prove it...) since last spring i have been using my second string travel mugs: the thermal french press (hard to drink from), the "excite" mug that was MacWorld swag in 1997 or something (coffee gets cold fast){see inset}, and the Rad Thermos (can't drink from it, just for transport).

i bought a new mug. tomorrow morning my coffee will stay hot. i will be able to sip from the cup as i drive to work.

today is a big day.

also: went to lunch with the full post-prod staff today, AND did some knitting at my desk.
AND sorted all my accumulated receipts for the year to date. trying to get a little head start on the taxes, don'tchewknow.

crafting ≠ lanyards and leaf plaques

despite my crazy period of work, this has been a pretty prolific craft period. (ok, that word "craft" connotes crocheted toilet paper roll covers, découpage plaques, bedazzled sweatshirts. i'm trying to get over this) over the years i've made several pairs of the above booties for friends with babies. they are a hit b/c kids can't pull them off. they are also good gifts b/c they are about the size of kids' feet when they are 5 mos. old. good for a gift procrastinator like me. :)

i knit the above pair for my friends marsha and charlie's daughter, nora. i used two different colors of koigu. koigu is handpainted marino wool. so beautiful. the yarn came out of my koigu stash. i started another pair last night in two more colors of koigu pulled from the closet.

while taking a class at sew l.a. i spotted some terrific fabrics that inspired me to make an apron for my friend, uyen, using sew liberated's "emmeline" pattern.
(the name of this pattern had me humming jonathan richman's "emmeline" for weeks. which is a-ok.) it's reversible. the two bigger pieces of fabric were each a "side" of the apron. the floral strips hanging there were the ties.

my pics are pretty lousy b/c i took them at night using the camera on my laptop (this is comedy all its own.) also, the apron is being modeled by my less-than-shapely ironing board.
i'm hoping the recipient can hook me up with a good pic that i can post later.























here, my pal, sea, graciously agreed to model the apron so i could photograph the ties in back. she did insist on props. that whisk and spatula are working kitchen utensils. no rental props here.

of note: much of this sewing was done while listening to the new yorker's fiction podcast and an assortment of comedy records.
**please pardon the layout of this post. i didn't take the time to figure out just how to balance the lay out.**

further signs o' the times

monday night as deadlines were approaching and fatigue was getting the best of me, one of our edit consoles started giving us pains. in a fit of avid crashing, rampant bin locks and frustration these are the names i assigned bins at midnight monday:

-new and different
-blow me
-you suck
-fuck you

sign o' the times

**the above pic (with me having all-time bad crazy cat lady hair) isn't from my current job. this is the post production staff from the defunct show "Life." one of the best jobs i've ever had. the man standing just to my left works with me on my current job, too. He is Rad.**

the job i'm working has resulted in some crazy work hours. today is day 11 in a row. not that impressive on it's own, but monday night i was at work until 1 am, tuesday until 3am. i've eating breakfast, lunch and dinner at my desk for a week. as is the norm with picture editing rooms, my office has no windows.
it's not my intention to set myself up as a martyr, just wanting to give context for what i did yesterday...

yesterday afternoon, as the hubub was dying down a little at work, i went on a coffee run to the starbucks across the street from the lot. it was 5pm. i grabbed my ID badge, some cash, and my sunglasses. i walked out the front door and into the dusk.

i just started laughing out loud.

between my work schedule and the time change last week, i'd completely missed out on the idea that the sun sets early now.

this weird little event just underscored how happy i am to be out from under the short short schedule of this last episode.

(also: i knew what the schedule was like before i took this job, so it's not as if i feel they're taking advantage of us. and we're union, so when we have work nutty hours, we are compensated, and well fed. :) )

postcards from kentucky

**halloween weekend i took a short trip to louisville kentucky for some music and socializing. and to get the hell out of my edit bay for a few hours. here are two cards that i wrote that weekend. things being what they are, both of them made the return trip to los angeles with me. the first card was sent to my pal, p. in ny. the second card sent to w. in fort wayne.**


10.31.09 Happy Halloween! This Saturday morning finds me in Louisville! flew here on a red-eye -- didn't get as much sleep as I'd hoped, but as soon as I pulled out of he car rental lot and onto the road I felt great! It rained last night. the sky is full of big dark clouds. I put the Oxford American cd that you gave me into the stereo and it was perfect. I'm in no shape for a bright, sunny morning. :)
I headed straight to a breakfast spot recommended to me. I've yet to try the food, but the coffee is good & strong! an indication that i'm in kentucky: i ordered bacon, and the people sitting on either side of me did as well. but! this place also has avocado on the menu! (review to follow!)
i heard from {X.} that change is afoot chez vous: {your roommate} moving, more school, no tv..remember, in a pinch you can watch dvds on your computer. means nothing for football, tho. :|
hope to see you soon!
ps. read Buck O'Neil's memoir. I recommend it!



(This card reminds me of your schooling your niece!)
sunday nov 1, 2009 -- concours B Midway Airport...
Further time-change comedy" got to Midway with a 40 min wait between planes went to the closest hairport food place, grabbed a (fair-but long refrigerated) turkey sandwich. Ate the sandwich quickly and sent a happy birthday text to my brother. After ahile I thought I'd been waiting a long time...maybe the flight was delayed...It is then that i realized that my watch (reading 6pm) is set to Louisville time. Here in Chicago, it is 5 pm. so my 40 min layover was an hour-forty. I used my extra 15 min to get a mocha and cookie. and now that flight is boarding. THANK YOU for a fantastic trip!!

amazing thing of the day: yo la tengo

am at work cutting sound effects for a scene involving a medical emergency. doing this kind of work is both creative and tedious. there is a certain amount of veracity required (less impressionistic say, than the "scary surfing" scene i put sfx on in the cleaner last season. (someday ask me about all the rad stuff that one can use to make the ocean sound scrary and hostile.)

anywhoo, am listening to yo la tengo's latest album "popular songs." (see inset) a minute ago the song playing caught my ear. it was "more stars than there are in heaven." it was in minute six. soooo beautiful.

sometime last month i went to see yo la tengo at the avalon. i was very close to having to miss the show b/c of nutty work happenings (visual effects, don'tchewknow), but through a group effort at the office, got there having only missed about 15 min.

wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. b/c i have to get back to the aforementioned medical emergency scene, i will cut this short.

yo la tengo are the masters of the slow build. they can play a song for 10 minutes at a steady, almost imperceptible build. man, i love it.

this song, "more stars than there are in heaven" is just lovely. makes me want to watch hal hartley movies. and walk around on a windy day. and visit arcata.

after this song comes the delicate, "fireside," then the 15 minute feedback-tacular "and the glitter is gone." that will get things cooking in here. ;)

overheard...

"...they have the world's largest collection of Bigfoot memorabilia."

overheard in wild eggs diner, louisville kentucky. wish i'd heard the follow up sentence.

at kaldi coffee in atwater village a couple weeks ago 3 guys sat down at a table near mine in mid-coversation about the films of Frank Stallone. among them, they could name two. two more than i could name. their conversation stemmed from one of them having seen a funny f. stallone cameo on a tv show.


what else: monday morning found the left front tire on my car was flat. my rad neighbor, eric, changed the flat for my spare (little donut tire)!
tuesday morning i came out to find the spare was flat. *blank stare*
i was headed to my mechanic to get new struts and tires. this derailed the plan a bit. ended up riding on the rim (sigh) to the service station on hyperion to fill the spare so i could just get to work.

at the end of today i will have new struts and new bitchin michelin tires on my old car. the last time i replaced the tires on my honda, i thought they'd be the last tires to be on that car. that car just keeps running, tho. I LOVE THAT CAR.

more to come on the weekend in louisville, the Tale of Amelita (this is good!), the recent craft wave items, and terrific books!

just for the record: i have been working a lot. one week my pay stub listed hours worked as 75. the following week: 70. oof.

rad thing of the day -- 1 week later

this has nothing to do with June Allyson, but i just came across this pic of her. it's a terrific pic, and she was fab. so.

these days i am working at a studio lot that abuts a recording studio. i walk by there on my way to lunch or the mailbox. people are often standing outside the front door, smoking or chatting.

last week as i was walking around the corner i looked up and was face to face with eric clapton.

!

as i continued walking down the sidewalk i thought "hey. that was eric clapton. and he's recorded this song...and worked with that person...and and and."
this was just a random sighting, but since moving to los angeles, and working in t.v. i've ended up working and crossing professional paths with so many people that i never imagined i'd meet.

three of these that stand out:
--david mamet: having been a theatre/film major in college, i'd read my fair share of his plays, so working with him on the pilot for "The Unit" was a pretty rad thing.

--bruce campbell: while we never met, we worked on "Burn Notice" together. i got to cut a few scenes that he was in. also very rad.

--jim scott: jim's a record producer. he worked on wilco's "being there" and "kicking television" as well as the "7 worlds collide" record. i worked with jim while he was mixing "kicking tv". i was the assistant picture editor on a concert film that that jim was mixing. although the concert film never got released (ala) i did get a short tour of the sunset sound recording studio (think neil young and led zeppelin).

i've got another great one coming up: the director who is slated to direct my next episode of "mercy" directed the movie, "rock n roll high school!" oh, i am bringing in my dvd for an autograph, to be sure. :D

additionally rad: the editor i'm assisting these days was an editor on "The X-Files." she edited one of the all time great episodes: "Jose Chung's From Outer Space." I have brought this up in conversation no fewer than 8 times already.

i love the mail

i came home last night to find some packages on my stoop. four (4!) records/cds had come in the mail!
pkg 1: wilco: the album and grizzly bear: vekatimest -- from a local radio station, thank you gifts from a recent pledge drive

pkg 2: yo la tengo: popular songs (new!) and an lp of their score to "adventureland"

i was too tuckered out from work (got home at 9:30) to give any of them a listen last night, but put them directly into my backpack for quality listening at the office today.

note: it is true that until last night i hadn't owned a copy of the latest wilco album. it came out june 30. this means that i haven't been to a record store in TWO MONTHS. what?! i work 2 blocks from amoeba in hollywood. of course, now that i have 4 new records, i don't need to go for awhile.

but still.

hmm.

out with the dross! or: chip chip chip continued...

it's sunday, labor day weekend. i'm moving some stuff around in my apt to make some room for a guest i've got coming for an extended stay.

i moved my sewing desk and machine into my bedroom, and put the cool, carved wooden chair in the dining room. (i really want to be sewing right now but am using all restraint i've got to keep on task.)

i was looking to file some stuff in my (very full) filing cabinet when i took a look at all the floppy discs (!) and old check registers in there. in the last 10 minutes i have committed discs containing Avid settings dating back to 1997, old clip art, EDLs from student projects, and scripts written while an undergrad (gilroy garlic festival!) all to the electronics waste bag. fonts, title sequences, avid bins, term papers...out!

am realizing that the clip art i use for my business cards is on one of the zip discs destined for the trash. hmm. i don't have a zip reader, but i better be sure i have that art on my laptop b4 i ditch that disc.

side note: my task energies gained a little oomf when i got a call telling me that we're starting work late tomorrow.

music series while cleaning, moving stuff, etc: doves: some cities; neko case: middle cyclone; flaming lips: soft bulletin.
snacks of note: pyramid hefe, trader joe's choc covered almonds

the sad yet much loved life of a two year old's quilt

**in an earlier post i described getting in touch with old friends and sending them a quilt i'd made for their son. a few weeks after i sent it, Eli sent me this letter...**


Ms. Y-von,

Mendel loves the quilt you made him so much that he likes to take it around with him sometimes. He sleeps with it every night. Mendel is also enraptured with experimentation--not in a Sonic Youth or Destroy All Monsters kind of way, but in an "I wonder would happen if..." mode. When you put those two things together, it can (and did) get a little ugly.

I'll preface today's mayhem with a little background. It's not so much that Mendel finds trouble, it's that trouble swirls around him in a cloud of giddy puckishness. For example, Mendel is a runner. When he spots an unlocked door to the outside, he turns the knob, pulls the door and he takes off. This has caused a couple of insanely worrisome freak-outs where we turn our backs for a second and Mendel has opened the front door and run off to take his act on the road. This same free-spiritedness leads him to frequently color on things, put odd objects in the refrigerator and love, love, love to play with the toilet.

We've tried to create obstacles to his mischief in the hopes of slowing him down, but alas the kid is much smarter than either of us. The front door problem is the rare problem that we seemed to have solved. To date he hasn't realized that he can pull a stool over to the front door and climb up to unlock the deadbolt we've become religious about locking. The other problems though just seem unavoidable. We try to put those things that can damage, cut, color or stain up high and out of reach, but with three older siblings, these prized objects are frequent finds. He shadows his brothers and sister like a ninja and as soon as a marker has been left out, in the blink of an eye, he's written all over himself, the floor, and the walls of at least three and a half rooms. We're attentive parents, but the kid can create a mess faster than a Chicago road crew.

Interior doors are also a lost cause. The child proofing industry has produced these well-intentioned little guards that clip over a doorknob and sit loosely around it so that unless you know to grip the metal through the holes in it, you're stuck scratching at the other side like a lonesome schnauzer. After a couple of days, Mendel figured out that the solution wasn't twisting, it was pulling them apart...and the boy won again. We also installed toilet lid locks because he has an incurable interest in the porcelain pool. Somehow, he's managed to figure those locks out as well. As a result, things tend to find their way into the toilet that shouldn't be there.

This morning I walked into the downstairs bathroom and what should I see neatly stuffed into the toilet, but his favorite quilt. Historically Mendel has only managed to throw small objects in the toilet. This time really went for the brass ring this and stuffed in the whole quilt. Perhaps he was curious about absorbency. I suppose we'll never know. What we do know is that as gross as that was, after a couple of thorough machine washings, the quilt was as good as new.

I can't promise this won't happen again. The little curly-headed demon with curiously quick mischief making skills is fickle. One minute he's lovingly carrying around his favorite quilt, lying on it, or wrapping himself in it like a burrito. The next he's flipped and is skillfully soaking up the toilet water. So in case you sensed the abuse of your lovely gift or heard its psychic, disgusted wail, I just wanted to be clear--it's not because he doesn't love it.

I hope all is well.

Eli

a weekend in postcards: August 1 - 2

this past weekend i enjoyed a bounty of neighborhood activity. at one point in the afternoon i rolled out a few post cards. i've transcribed them below. there are a few repeated thoughts among them, but i've left them in here.

NUMBER 1:
*note: this first one references a particular beetle. the week before i'd seen this HUGE SHINY BEETLE flying and bumping into my window screen. this thing belonged in Egypt or Brazil. crazy. i sent my pal, suzie, a note about it. she's keen on insects and likely knows just what type of (enormous) beetle it was.
saturday Aug. 1 2009 -- Back patio @ Stories, Echo Park...

ok. crazy beetle update:
this morning i saw two of those same green beetles land in some grass, burrow and DISAPPEAR. i was standing there w/my bike, helmet on, staring at the grass at the base of this jacaranda tree. I'm sure my mouth was agape.
I bent down for a better look, pulled back the grass and saw one. very still. I didn't want to poke it lest it come flying up at me. :|
I'm beginning to think they're some kind of burrowing, years dormant bug that 's not surfaced during my 6 years (!) in that apartment. Both fascinating and unnerving. (I just noticed I have bike chain grease all over the back of my right leg. I'm not one of those cool cyclists. My helmet is goofy & I always get chain grease & tire marks on my legs.) I just came from a new-ish small record store. bought a concert ticket and a 45 rpm of a new Wilco song.
now: cappuccino & shady patio!

NUMBER 2:

*this was sent to my sister linda and brother in law jim*


my initial plan for today ended with me @ work trying to get a little ahead so i could take 2 days off at the end of next week. However. I'm sitting on this shady, breezy back patio of a book store cafe. I just drained the last bit of foam from my cappuccino and thought, "Well, that's not gonna happen." :) so, I will get back on my bike (i rode it here), ride west on Sunset Blvd, from Echo Park to Sunset Junction, where i'll stop @ another amazing coffee shop for a little while. Then, I'll head home. Do a little laundry and a lot of sewing. Bonus activity: I'll box up 4 (FOUR!!) packages to mail tomorrow. There's a shipping place in my neighborhood open Sundays. I love them. One package is a souvenir coffee mug i bought mom in NYC last january. It's been on my desk for 7 months. I've got some good sewing mojo going on. Gonna ride that wave.
also: job interview for next gig next week!


NUMBER 3:

*to my pals, trish and maudie


Saturday (!) August 1, 2009 - sippng iced american @ intelligentsia cafe - one of my favorite chicago exports :)
I just read something that brought to mind the hysterical, and frightfully accurate email re: concert attendees that Trish sent me. It's this, taken from the piece "Disco Hints: The New Etiquette," by Fran Lebowitz: "16 minute instrumentals by West-African tribal drummers are frequently the cause of undue amyl nitrate consumption and shirt removal." in this piece she laments taht while she loves dancing, she doesn't like crowds, and it is unfeasable to bring the discoteque into her home. Again, this turns my thoughts to you all. :)
I've not read Fran L. before. i found this on the "your next book" rack @ the library this afternoon. i'm really enjoying how dated the subject matter is (refs to water piks and answering services).
fun fact: i bought a wilco 45 today that is sitting here on my table b/c i couldn't leave it in my bike basket: it's parked in the sun. NO WARPING!


**wednesday follow up: i never did go into work that saturday. i did sort all my laundry. sunday i washed 10 loads of the stuff. i managed to get all four packages mailed out. this afternoon i got a message from my brother that he received his new shorts. :)

and i got the job!**

IT IS ON!

the new oldsmobiles are in! even better...last night i came home to a package on my doorstep: the 2009 batch of RAMPANT BADASSERY stickers have arrived!
if you want one, just mail me a SASE. if you don't have my address, drop me a line. we'll work out the logistics.
finally, i have one to put on my car. ha!

no way to finish something

for the last year and a half i've been on a slow and steady mission to clear out some of my languishing craft projects and use materials i have in my apt. this really is the m.o. i've been applying to my entire life. i'm chipping away at the list of tasks, chipping away at the piles of paper, chipping away at debt, chipping away at clutter.

it's been working well, but the urge to start new projects is strong. about a month ago i stood staring into the closet of fabric and yarn, wanting to start a new sewing project. i pulled out a plastic container filled with cut fabric and scraps left over from more than a decade of quilting projects. i started sewing together all the pre-cut squares and cutting more from the fabric scraps.

even if i pack all these bits of fabric back into that box and put it back in the closet i've done enough piecing to reduce thier number by 75%. what was once 4 pieces is now one.

this may not be any way to finish a project, but it's a great way to get something started. :)


fun facts: among the fabrics in these pix: there are pieces from a quilt i made my brother during President Clinton's impeachment trial, a quilt made for Vinnie's baby son --who is now a junior in high school, another quilt made for a friend when i was cutting Animal Planet shows.

surprising the little bits of personal history and context that bubble up with this kind of stuff.


in this pic: bowling pin & candy corn fabrics!
these pix are representational of conditions in my dining room: both desks and two chairs covered in fabric stacks and sewing equipment. if my bicycle wasn't dirty i'd likely have fabric piled on it, too.

further craft note: am also in the midst of a knitting hanger marathon. will have used 8 balls of yarn from my stash, and 10 hangers from the box in the closet when all is said and done.

HELL.
YES.



snack of note: while sewing: leinenkugel's amber ale, pita chips & hummus quartet; while typing: triple vanilla late and mango slices.

weekend, O! weekend!

i've had this children's quilt on my couch for about the last 8 years. i made it when my friend eli & chava were expecting a baby. we had been friends up at humboldt, then in l.a. sometime before i finished the blanket we fell out of touch.

at this time i was trying to add pieced borders to my quilts. i'm particulary proud of the pieced stars in this one. :)
it's got a nice orange flannel back (another first for me back then).
pardon the wide, bland pic with the yard stick at the end. it was taken with my laptop for
someone interested in using it in a shoot. here is a nice detail shot:
those little shapes in the blue squares are fish. with smiles. i am very fond of this old fabric. :)

over the years i've considered giving the quilt to other friends who were having kids but never did. i like to make things with the recipients in mind, so giving it to another family just felt odd.

a couple of weeks ago, through the radness of f/b, eli and i reconnected! turns out we'd lost touch b/c he and his wife moved out of state. i'd completely forgotten. their family has since grown, and their youngest is a two yr old boy. i told them the story of the quilt and asked if i could send it to them. it's now in a box, awaiting a mailing label. this week it's off to my friends after all these years. awesome. (lord, my fatigue has depleted my vocabulary in a powerful way. sigh).

i'm happy about this for all the obvious reasons but also b/c now i have reason to make another quilt for home. woo! how cool would it be for all the blankets at my place to be handmade? one long-cooker of a project i have is to mend the afghan my grandma irene crocheted. just needs a little mending where the granny squares have been attached.

boy, this was a terrific weekend. got a few things done, did some knitting, watched "Dinner at Eight," had some unexpected social time with my neighbors, had two bagels, saw a movie, wrote a few postcards, went to the record store, and spent a good deal of time reading "wonder boys."

this evening as i rode my bike home from an afternoon at good & intelligentsia mmj's version of the velvet underground's "oh! sweet nuthin'" came up on the shuffle and just broke my heart. such a terrific song.
where effie st. crosses hyperion there is wide open view of the neighborhood. there were some low grey clouds over the hollywood sign and griffith observatory as the sun was setting. the area jacaranda trees are all in full bloom: luminous lavender everywhere! dotting the hillsides, along every street. one of those beautiful, cool evenings in the neighborhood.

(this pic came from a forum for landscape architects. i couldn't find a photo credit.)

and with that: off to bed. big week coming up: ira glass is coming to town for a this american life screening and i'm going to a new dentist. excited and a little terrified. my last dentist recommended gum grafts. this is how he became my Last Dentist. :|

further badassery...

most of you have heard my tales of world-wide sticker distribution, but if you haven't, here is the nutshell version:

last summer i made some bumper stickers to pass out to fans at my morning jacket shows as souveniers of the tour. for kicks. thought it would be a hoot. the stickers were printed with "RAMPANT BADASSERY" a saying i'd used to describe mmj's live shows.

i brought them to shows in several towns (and states *cough*) and passed them out to people i met there. i posted a thread on the mmj fan forum about the stickers and offered them to anyone who sent me a SASE (c'mon Zoom fans, i know you're out there!).

i gave a stack of them to the mmj road crew. one response in particular was, "fucking awesome!" glad to see they were well received. :)
as i sent the stickers out i kept a list of all the states that they went to. in detroit i gave one to a young guy who said, "i read about these!" ha!
a lot of people sent me cool stickers in return, or pix of their towns and friends. such a fun, cool thing to experience.

as i mailed the last sticker out (to a fan in New Mexico) the totals stood thusly: stickers went to fans in 26 states, canada, australia and japan!

last week i had my first unexpected "R.A." sticker sighting:

it was at the Decemberists show in l.a. i recognized two of the techs on stage as being part of the mmj road crew last year. after the show i got the attention of one of them to say hello. when he asked how i recognized him, i told him that i went to a lot of shows, then, "i made those "rampant badassery" stickers." he pointed to his roadcase which had one on the R.A. stickers on it. then he called over to the other tech i'd recognized and shouted, "hey, eric! it's the rampant badassery girl." which got a "no way!" and some gesturing toward the sticker on his roadcase. we had a short "hey those stickers went everywhere" conversation shouted across the security people sweeping out the crowd stragglers.

awesome.

in recounting this story enough people have asked me for stickers that i'm considering making a second batch. keep your eyes peeled for MACH II.

postcard-a-go-go!

since i was about 6 years old i've been a letter writer. when i was in college and couldn't afford to make long distance calls that weren't collect, i wrote even more. i bought and used a lot of stationery and postcards. when i got to grad school, not only did i not make phone calls, but my letter writing dropped off as i was busy getting up at 4am to script supervise my friends films. oof.

to get to the point: quite a few of the postcards in my apt i've been carting around for years. decades.

in the last couple weeks of april i learned that the postal rate was going up. at the time i had about thirty 27¢ postcard stamps. i determined to use as many of the 27¢ stamps (and postcards from my stash) as i could before the rate change. by the last saturday before the rate increase i'd written 27 postcards. WOO!

now, i've found i'm kind of on a roll. saturday i stopped by the post office for forty 1¢ stamps (sigh) to continue my postcard binge. i shot myself in the foot in re: depleting the decades deep stash of postcards in my apt, though, when i bought a 20 pack of postage paid Simpsons postcards at the post office. DAMN! it may have been a reaction to realizing that i'd just added 20 more postcards back into the supply that had me sit down and write another 10 cards over the last couple days.

still, i did manage to send at least three postcards i've had with me since the mid 1980's. that felt FANTASTIC! one of them was an aerial photo of the Red Lion Hotel in north san jose. i took that postcard from hotel when i was there ringing in the new year 1987 or 1988. i don't remember the year but i do remember having a terrific time and dancing with my friend walt to a band in the lounge. also managed to use a card i'd purchased at a dead show in about the same time period. it had some very grateful dead related art work on it.

all this card writing has usurped my knitting time at cafes, so i haven't been knitting at all. each postcard is its own thing, so they don't require a continuing attention and focus like a knitting project. timing is good for that kind of activity, tho.

assorted fun facts: weekend cafe total: 5, finished reading paul feig's, "kick me," began reading "wonder boys" again, came home tonight to the neighbors bbq-ing in the courtyard and was met with, "you want a piña colada?"

and now, time for bed.

people...who need people

"thanks again for getting that bee out of my hair."

what i said to petra that made a guy walking past us laugh.
fun fact: spoken at the l.a. times festival of books

how hot was my apartment that weekend?

the weekend of april 17 was a scorcher here in los angeles. i missed the heat, however, because i was in the state capital record shopping and sangria drinking with my old college housemates. (woo!) the weather there was perfect! and, as i was in "weekend with friends" mode, i was blissfully unaware of the heat back home.

until...

i got off the plane in burbank sunday night. at the burbank airport you deplane down an open air flight of stairs, not a jetway. i walked out of the plane, at 8pm and it was hot. still. not warm. hot.

cutting to the chase: my apt. complex was built for maximum cross breeze (many big windows), but with no insulation. my kitchen gets even hotter than the rest o' the place b/c the gas stove and water heater are in it.

i opened my cupboard to get a snack and i found that the container of mini peanut butter cups had become one mass o' melted snack food.
this isn't the first time this has happened. i have a bag of chocolate chips in the cupboard that has turned into a big block o'dark chocolate (good with peanut butter, btw).










also: them thermometer on my window fan read 98 degrees when i got home at 9:30 pm.

oof.

i am going to enjoy every light breeze and moderately warm day we have until the summer gets going.

saturday in two parts

friday afternoon i made plans with sang to hike on sunday. it was a loose plan with one goal: a good, long, semi-challenging hike. having made that plan let me focus all my housekeeping chores on saturday.
i woke up early, did six (6!) loads of laundry, dishes, swiffered most of apt., took out the recycling & trash, cleaned out the fridge, washed my kitchen trashcan, cleared away a stack of mail (ads, catalogs, etc). after all this was done i walked up the street for a pedicure.
after the pedicure i went to a cafe up the street for some reading. the following is a post card i wrote while sitting there. look for the twist:

5.2.09 Saturday afternoon...
"Perhaps all short stories can be understood as ghost stories, accounts of visitations and reckonings with the traces of the past." --Michael Chabon, from "The Other James"

I've been slowly reading a collection of short stories by Hiruki Murakami. I didn't know if was his writing, the translation, or my approach to his stories, but all of them had a dreamy quality. The voice in my head as i read them is calm and steady. just a minute ago i finished reading the M. Chabon piece noted above. as i read that line i had an "oh. of course." moment. so, in the last few minutes i've been applying that sentiment to stories i've read.
[oh. my. god. there are two crazy hyper chatty children running all around this patio. around my table shouting to their parents. they never stop making sounds. i can't even maintain concentration enough to finish this p-card. just try to get a bit contempletive in any public space in los feliz these days. pfft.
ending on a good thought: i'm going for a hike tomorrow w/my pal sang. i don't know where yet. we just made the plan to do it. i always defer trail selection to him b/c he's the man in the know.
--evonne


follow up: our friend travis joined us! we hiked a trail in the santa monica mtns. that included a scramble to sandstone peak, the highest point in the santa monica mtn. range. at the peak we sat in the crazy gusts of wind, holding our hats and ate oranges from travis' backyard.
man, it was gorgeous! many wildflowers still in bloom. stunning views of the ocean to the west and the valley to the east.
in this pic of NYPD Blue's editorial dept: sang is the 4th from the left in black, travis is on the right in the blue shirt.

i'm now going to watch more jeremy brett as sherlock holmes and hit the hay.

rad thing of the day: my thermos

i love this thermos.

for years i've been using a thermal coffee mug to tote my joe. i love this mug. but that mug has been sidelined as i left it at a neighbor's house weeks ago. in the interim i've been using the thermos.

when my neighbor, beige, moved to philadelpia she shed a few belongings. she gave this thermos to me.
it keeps my coffee hot for hours. this is important. it may seem to be overstating it that this thing is good at what it does, but i have several second string thermal mugs that are not effective: they drip, they don't keep stuff hot, they're awkward to use.

so.

my first ever Rad Thing of the Day post is dedicated to my thermos.
thanks, beige!